AURORA
“How was your night last night?” I asked Charolette the next afternoon at practice during our infamous five-mile run. I jogged alongside her through the woods, leaping over fallen branches and stepping on withering orange leaves in my human form.
I definitely wasn’t prying about what had happened with Marcel. Pack lunas never wanted to get involved in pack drama. And not knowing about them definitely wasn’t eating me up on the inside. Note the sarcasm.
A fog sat heavily in the woods just above the trees as other warriors sprinted through the narrow paths far in front of us. The chilling morning air vaguely reminded me of Hound Territory, making me uneasy. Or maybe I was uneasy because Ares still hadn’t broken yet.
I’d be getting sweet revenge on him today though. He had it coming after last night.
Charolette shrugged her shoulders, breathing heavily out of her nose. “Good.”
I slowed my pace to meet hers. “Do anything fun?”
“No, not really.”
The last of the warriors disappeared through the woods, but Marcel hung back and glanced over his shoulder at us. I waved my hand to tell him to move along and to train the rest of the pack as we continued by ourselves. Charolette gazed at him, a small smile on her face, and then she looked down at her shoes and continued beside me.
When Marcel finally ran ahead, I grabbed Charolette’s slender wrist and stopped her. Almost immediately, I dropped my hand because her bones felt so brittle and weak. I didn’t want to accidentally break one. No matter how much Marcel denied that he liked her, I knew that if I accidentally broke Charolette’s wrist, he’d try to beat my ass for it.
“Okay, spill. Tell me what’s going on between you and Marcel.” I crossed my arms, arched a brow, and smiled at her flushing cheeks. “And don’t say nothing because I saw you and him together last night.”
Her eyes widened. “You saw us together?”
“I was looking for Ruffles but found you two instead.”
“At the coffee shop?”
“In the alleyway.”
“Oh Goddess, no …” She threw her hands over her face. “You didn’t tell Ares, did you?”
My lips curled into a smile. “No.”
She sighed, her shoulders falling forward. “Thank Goddess. Okay, I’ll tell you about it, but you have to promise me that you won’t tell anyone anything, especially Ares. He would have Marcel’s ass if he saw him all over me. He knows how much of a player that man is.”
After pinkie-promising her that I wouldn’t say a word, I stared at her in excitement. I’d been dying to know exactly what was going on because this tension was driving me insane. I could only imagine how she felt about it all. “So?”
Glancing through the trees at the pack gathering in the field, Charolette smiled softly. “Marcel and I are …” she started, getting sidetracked when Marcel pulled his shirt over his head, his thick muscles glistening with sweat. When she looked back at me, her entire peppy demeanor changed into one of sadness. “We’re mates.”
Something about the way she’d said it made it seem so sad.
Mates weren’t supposed to be sad or sorrowful. Mates made life better in every way possible.
I frowned as she jogged a bit ahead of me, keeping her eyes trained on the ground.
I caught up to her and nudged my shoulder against hers, hoping to lighten the mood. “Is that a bad thing?”
“No … I just …” She held back her tears. “I want to be with him. It’s just difficult because of my cancer. I want him to be happy. I know that if he’s with me, he won’t be. He’ll have to take care of me and …” She tugged on the edges of her fake hair. “And there are so many other pretty girls out there he could be with …”
I stopped in my tracks and snatched her wrist. “Stop it, Charolette. You’re beautiful.”
“I have a wig, Aurora,” she whispered, huge eyes trembling with tears. “I … I don’t feel pretty. I haven’t felt pretty in years. Why would he want to be with someone like me? I only come with problems.”
Lips quivering, I pulled her into a hug, so she wouldn’t see how much it hurt me when she said it. I knew what it was like to think that you weren’t good enough for someone. Thoughts like that had eaten me up for years.
“Having cancer or a wig doesn’t define who you are. Marcel will love you for it either way,” I said, stroking her smooth blonde hair.
She sniffled into my shoulder and wrapped her arms around me, holding me tight. I rested my head against hers and glanced through the trees at Ares, who stood in the middle of the field, peering around the woods to find us.
When his eyes locked on mine, he furrowed his brows. “Is she okay?”
“She’s fine,” I said through the mind link.
Lie. She wasn’t really fine and was hurting a lot. But this was girl talk.
After pulling away from her, I tilted my head toward the field. “We should get to practice.”
She nodded and followed me through the woods to the field. I pushed some branches out of the way for her to walk through and stepped onto the grass, heading toward the other warriors.
“Why don’t you use the stone?” I offered, desperate for her to take it. If she wanted to heal, wanted to live, she needed to take the stone. “It will heal you.”
She pushed away tears and shook her head. “No.”
I swallowed hard and clenched my jaw, so I wouldn’t flip. Why was she so against using it? Why did she refuse over and over and over? After everything that she had been through, I’d think she’d want to use it to survive, especially if her cancer was getting worse, like Ares had said it was.
Charolette looped her arm around mine and strolled to Marcel. “Enough about me. Let’s talk about the Luna Ceremony! I am so thrilled for it! It’s almost in ten days!” She pushed some strands of blonde hair off her sweaty forehead. “I made an appointment at Lucy’s Boutique for Tuesday morning at ten a.m., so we can get you the best dress ever!”
Though I wanted to spend more time convincing her, I nodded and smiled along, stomach filling with butterflies. Men, women, and children always raved about Luna Ceremonies, when I was growing up. Everyone loved attending and officially adding a new member to the pack. And in just over a week, I would officially be this pack’s luna.
But … I wanted to be more than just a luna.
Since Jeremy had died, I’d had my sights set on being alpha. Training relentlessly every day, I’d tried hard to be strong, to fight with such aggression, to one day be able to lead, but I had consistently let my pack down.
Elijah’s words about me using the stone rang through my head. With the other half of the Malavite Stone, I could be everything that I hoped to be and more. I’d be more than a luna, and I’d have more than just the title of alpha. I could be an actual one—dominant, possessive over what was mine, and ready to kill whoever threatened my pack.
If Charolette wouldn’t accept the stone, then maybe I’d have to use it.
My gaze shifted to Ares, who was fighting some vigorous wolves in our pack. We could be the most powerful couple around Sanguine Wilds. And we might, just might, be able to get rid of the hounds without everyone becoming the undead.
“Aren’t you excited?” Charolette said to me, drawing me out of my thoughts.
I forced a smile on my face. While I wanted to be thrilled for the ceremony, other things like the hounds, chatting with Adrian about underground tunnels, and trying to control Ares’s short temper as he tried so desperately to keep his hands off me, plagued my mind.
That last bit wasn’t much of a problem. It just got him closer and closer to breaking. And to be honest, something about it was damn sexy. His possessiveness, the way he’d dominated me, how he had shown me that I was his last night, I couldn’t get enough of it.
Tan skin glistening under the rays of light breaking through the fog, Ares glanced at me from across the field with darkening eyes. “I can smell you, Kitten,” he said through the mind link. He slammed a wolf onto his back and stood above him, veins in his arms prominent, as if he was trying to keep himself preoccupied.
I took a deep breath to calm myself down, but it wasn’t working. I couldn’t last another ten days without him. We hadn’t been without sex for that long since we’d been together. Ten whole days was too damn long.
He growled low. “Control yourself before I lose it.”
I smiled, ready for round two when we got home. “No.”
“Kit—”
“About time,” Marcel said, crossing his arms over his chest when Charolette pulled me toward him.
I threw Ares a cheeky smile and looked back at Charolette and Marcel.
Marcel gave Charolette an expression filled with the utmost guilt, and then turned stoic. “What took you so long?”
Charolette cut her eyes at him. “If you couldn’t tell, we’re both broken. You don’t need to go so hard on us. We’re doing the best we can.” She stormed past him, smacking her shoulder right into Marcel’s arm in a weak attempt to push him, and grabbed her water bottle from the grass.
Marcel raised his brows, his silver hair blowing in the breeze. “I do need to go hard on you because I know you won’t try if I let you train by yourself,” he said, lip curled in an ugly snarl. “You won’t do anything if I don’t hound you about it.”
Charolette tossed her bottle down and started toward the corner of the large field, by a group of tall pine trees and fog. Nobody ever practiced that far away from the center, as it wasn’t needed. The field was nearly two hundred yards long.
“Come on, Aurora. Let’s go train.”
Marcel caught her wrist. “No, you don’t, Princess. You’re training with me today.”
I suggestively raised my brows at her and winked.
She rolled her eyes at him and crossed her arms over her chest. “Well, who will Aurora fight then? I have to be her partner or else she won’t be able to train at all, and how could you let our soon-to-be luna not train? Do you—”
“Damn, you ask too many questions.” Marcel turned to the pack, puckered his lips, and whistled.
Almost immediately, wolves stopped and glanced over. Ares emerged from the pack, thick strands of brown hair plastered to his forehead.
Marcel nodded to me. “Ares, you’re with your mate.”
Marcel wanted me to fight Ares?
It had been a while since I’d fought an alpha, and I had never once really fought my mate. But maybe it was time to test out my true strength instead of being pitied by wolves who knew I couldn’t shift.
Marcel squeezed my shoulder and leaned in close, strands of his hair falling into his scarred face. “His weaknesses are left-ankle picks, his right calf, and getting sucker-punched right in the rib cage. Stay on him and don’t let up. Make him tired.” Then, he stepped away from me and smirked at Ares. “Let’s see who the real alpha of this pack is.”
Dressed in nothing but a pair of gray shorts, Ares sauntered over to me and eyed me like he did his prey. I had seen those hungry, vicious eyes too many times in the bedroom to know that was what I was to him at this moment—a piece of meat he’d try to chew up and spit out to prove his superiority.
I sucked in a deep breath—remembering every moment, every sensation, every touch from last night—and crouched in a wrestling stance, ready for him to destroy me—I mean, ready to kick his ass … because that was exactly what I was going to do. I wasn’t going to let myself get distracted by that chiseled abdomen or those golden eyes that had taken in every part of my body last night.
When Ares lowered into his stance, I analyzed his body positioning. Because he was at least twice my size, he’d toss me around so easily if I let him. But I needed to fight to get stronger, so we could have a possibility at defeating these hounds. He wouldn’t have a chance of throwing me around.
Ares came at me quickly, shooting in for a takedown and snatching the backs of my knees. I sprawled back, driving my hips toward the ground, and hooked my arms under his shoulders to get a grip on him. After gaining leverage, I pushed him back and reevaluated my plan.
He stayed back for one fucking moment before coming at me again, this time faster. He hit me so damn hard that he knocked me down onto the ground, his hand cradling the back of my head before it could bounce off the earth.
I growled under my breath and squirmed out of his death grip to get to my feet, keeping a low stance. That wouldn’t happen again. I wouldn’t allow it to happen. I had to be prepared for anything.
So, while he circled me, I kept my distance and watched the way he moved. I kept up with him, sprawling and dodging his takedowns, pushing him harder than he’d expected me to. And when I finally saw the opening, I grabbed his right wrist, yanked him down, and snatched the back of his left ankle, executing the perfect ankle pick on him.
With all his muscle mass, he hit the ground hard with an oof. I landed on top of him, immediately turning him onto his back to nail his shoulders to the ground. But before I could secure a position, he threw me off him, pulled me onto my back, and pinned my shoulders to the dirt.
After inhaling his scent, I vowed that I wouldn’t let myself lose this fight.
I’d lost last night. I wouldn’t be able to stand that arrogant face of his when we got home tonight.
So, I back-bridged out of his grasp and turned onto my stomach. From behind me, he hooked his legs around my thighs, spread my legs so I couldn’t hold a strong base, and tried hard to break me back down.
It was that position that lost him the match because his cock was pressed against my ass. Instead of actually fighting—because, let’s face it, I was still way too horny to think straight—I ground my hips back against his. When I felt him harden against his shorts, I elbowed him hard in the ribs and turned us over, so I was on top.
Straddling his waist, I swung my leg around his right calf and squeezed hard, putting his right ankle into a tight lockdown with my legs. Almost immediately, he tapped out, a low, guttural growl exiting his throat.
“Fuck, Aurora. Let go.”
“What’s wrong?” I asked when I let go and he still looked like he was in pain.
He shook his head, and then showed me the large canine scar across his right calf. “It’s from a battle I was in years ago with a hound,” he said, rubbing it gently. It looked like the muscle had been chewed off and grown back.
“I should call you Achilles.”
He growled under his breath and grabbed my hand to pull himself to his feet. “If you start calling me that, Kitten is going right out the window.” He walked over to the sidelines with me and tugged on his shirt. Despite practice still running, he checked his phone. “Six p.m. Don’t we have a date at Pink Moon Tavern to attend?”
“We?” I asked, wiping the sweat off my body with a towel. I glanced over at Marcel and Charolette bickering back and forth about something. “I don’t remember you asking to go with me to meet with Adrian.” I arched a brow and rolled my deodorant stick under my arms. “But you can come, as long as you apologize to Adrian for what you did last night.”
“What did I do?” Ares asked, so seriously dumbfounded that I almost believed him. Almost. “Finger-fucked my woman so many times that she had to beg me to stop? Made sure she knew she was mine? Protected her from some asshole who could take her away from me?”
I rolled my eyes and waved good-bye to Marcel and Charolette. “Guess you don’t want to go. You can always stay here and babysit Ruffles, so she doesn’t go out ho-ing anymore. Will that do it for you?”
“Fine. I’ll apologize but not because I’m sorry about it.” He grabbed my hand and led me down to the prison, taking a detour before we ran to the tavern. “Only because you want me to.”
Dusty and filled with cobwebs, the prison reeked of feces and days-old wheat. Dad sat in his open cell in the same bloodied clothes and barely looked at me. I stared at him for a few moments and frowned. I didn’t know what to say to him anymore. I hadn’t found the words, nor had the confidence to ask him to live in this pack with Ares and me. He didn’t have anywhere else to go, so I thought it was kind of a given, but everything felt weird with him now.
“How’s Liam doing?” Ares asked a guard.
Sleeping on the hard cement with chains binding each of his extremities, Liam lay on the ground two cells down from Dad. He was another problem that we needed to sort out as soon as possible. Ares needed a beta to take Liam’s place. Marcel would fit perfectly, but he was already in charge of training the pack.
“Doesn’t eat his food or talk to anyone here,” the guard said, shrugging. “Sits in that corner and sleeps all day or just mutters to himself about how stupid he was for blindly trusting a rogue.”
“And the rogue?” I asked, brows furrowed.
After glancing briefly down the hall in the opposite direction, he directed his attention to me. “She’s … self-harming. We’ve tried to stop it by using metals other than silver, but she continues to find a way.”
Ares tensed and glanced down the hall toward her cell. This was a sensitive topic for him. He had done the same to himself Goddess knew how many times. I didn’t want him to even think about it.
So, I ushered him up the stairs, but before I followed him, I stopped in front of the guard. “Keep me updated on the rogue and give her a mental evaluation. She has a son. I don’t want her trying to give herself fatal wounds.”
After he nodded, I followed Ares up the stairs and out into the dark wilderness. I grabbed Ares’s hand and let him guide me to the borders, trying to get his mind off the rogue and on something less … sensitive.
“So, when are we having the pups over for your group therapy session?”
“Tuesday night.” Ares intertwined his fingers with mine. “You’re going to be there, right?”
“I wouldn’t miss it,” I said.
He paused, looked over at me, and smiled—a bit of Mars peeking through his solid, rocky exterior. “I wanted to talk to you about the Luna Ceremony. I heard you speaking to Charolette about it during practice and wanted to ask if you would wear my mother’s—”
Before Ares could finish, the mind link started buzzing with wolves. “The hounds are here.”